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OBITUARY - Star Wars Fullscreen/Pan and Scan versions. R.I.P. — Page 5

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 (Edited)

Well I am encountering all sorts of problems with dropped frames and out of sync audio, which I may or may not get round to solving in time. In the meantime here is a clip from the Pan and Scan PAL Star Wars from the UK 1982 VHS. As russs15 talked about at the beginning of the thread there are lots of little differences in the telecine compared to the US 1982 VHS tape. If you play this clip next to retartedted's excellent preservation you should be able to see a couple of differences in shots (keeping in mind PAL runs faster). I have desaturated the colours in my transfer to tame the dreaded pink shift on the tape, so its looks pretty weak colourwise.

*video taken down*

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Sadly, this is how I hear C-3PO's voice in the prequels ..... like he's on some PAL related helium binge ..... LOL.

Anyways, it's nice to see others wanting to archive what they have and share with others.  Another suggestion might be getting a standalone DVD recorder unit so that you can just do each movie outright to it's own disc and work from there.  Granted, you may have to synch audio to it or you could leave what ever the standalone would give you.  My Panasonic does 256kbps DD 2.0 audio.  It's not as desirable as I'd like but for straight transfers to mpeg2 it is sufficient enough. 

Some standalone units even allow you to alter some settings but they're usually very basic when it comes to the recording side of things.  Most of what you need you'd probably do in post anyways. 

 

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Hello all,

 

This is my first entry at OT.com. I've been reading it for quite a while now - chasing for that one Holy Grail edition of the Star Wars Trilogy.

 

I was lucky enough to watch the Special Edition trilogy in the cinema - along with all the subsequent Star Wars films - which I felt really enthusiastic about at the time. The way it looked, sounded and was generally there. Not until a few years afterwards did I revisited the original trilogy on TV and came face-to-face with the changes made with the SE. Some were pretty good - e.g. the extended Cloud City sequences and backdrops are really great IMHO, but others were quite disappointing (like the infamous "Han shot first" argument).

Since then I've been trying to get hold on GOUT - the 2006 DVDs never made it into Hungary where I live, and Laserdisc is virtually unknown. The only original versions of SW I own is the VHS edition of the SE - in pretty bad shape now.

One of the versions I'm really trying to get hold on is the 1995 fullscreen VHS version or alternatively the 1993 FS LD. For one reason they are the ultimate versions of GOUT apart from the 1977 theatrical releases (I'm very much looking forward to negative1's 35mm scan, and Harmy's Despecialized version is an excellent release as well) and the other being that I'm looking specifically for a p&s version.

Now, I know a lot of people hate FS and I agree with their argument - I used to hate it, too - but in the age of CRT TVs and VCR units that was the only way to exploit the maximum resolution from the technology available.

Unfortunately, I'm still stuck with a CRT TV along with a VCR and a DVD unit and I occasionally watch films on my 4:3 laptop, too, but the small size of these screens turned me from a P&S hater to a user - especially in an age of HD where resolution is key.

I don't know if there was a FS release from the 2006 DVDs - I'm assuming not - hence my question: does anybody have these releases?

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There was never a Fullscreen version of the GOUT from the 2006 DVD.

In both the US Widescreen and Fullscreen 2006 DVD releases, the same Bonus (GOUT) DVD was included in both - unless someone else knows any different........

 

The 2004/2006 Fullscreen DVD's are very strange to watch but are a worthy addition to any obsessive collectors collection.

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Discuss…

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Yes, it IS somewhat strange to watch films in fullscreen. On another note technology only NOW gets to the level to be comparable with a movie theatre experience - technologically that is - with 4K TVs, so I do not condemn FS films any more but rather embrace it as part of the times we lived with.

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NO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://i39.tinypic.com/2vuik2r.jpg

R.I.P. Old Friend

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Oh, no! I'm sorry, Frank!

A picture is worth a thousand words. Post 102 is worth more.

I’m late to the party, but I think this is the best song. Enjoy!

—Teams Jetrell Fo 1, Jetrell Fo 2, and Jetrell Fo 3

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But wait! I can't believe this sellotape fix worked (and in spite of me breaking a tiny plastic hook for a spring which seemed to enable a bit to spring back in the process). I rewinded the tape and it plays but will it stay together when it gets to the sellotape join? Maybe I'll just stick to watching the first 20 mins.

http://i40.tinypic.com/dxkzs8.jpg

http://i44.tinypic.com/depqv4.jpg

http://i44.tinypic.com/2rr093s.jpg

http://i41.tinypic.com/2na5jqa.jpg

VHS lives! (for the time being)

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For what it's worth I've taped together more than a few VHS tapes in my time, and never had a problem. Obviously you'll lose whatever you've lost, and tracking will probably go awry for a second or too, but as long as you've been neat there shouldn't be a problem when it goes past the head.

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I'm still amazed it worked. Well thats my preservation project for today.

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What, don't tell me this was the first time you fixed a VHS :-)

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pittrek said:

What, don't tell me this was the first time you fixed a VHS :-)

 

Yep, I think because I once tried to fix a music cassette and that was too fiddly I assumed video would be the same. But I wasnt going to give up on this vintage tape without giving it a shot. Glad I did.

I should probably stop derailing this thread now.

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pittrek said:

What, don't tell me this was the first time you fixed a VHS :-)

I remember back in the day we used to copy hard to find rental tapes and then swap the physical tape from the copy to the rental cassette so we could keep the hard to find, rental only, tape.  Used to look at this as liberating them from the rental store.  Nobody ever checked to see if the little stickers were cut.

I suppose I am not an honorable man :)

No way I would do something like that nowadays. But anywho, we cracked open a few of these guys back in the day and performed surgery.

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Here's a clip from that fixed tape (pal c.1982) playing on a tv taken with my camera phone (15fps), followed by a different clip from an ntsc tape c.1984 by which time it had been 'digitally mastered'. The analog mastered tape seems to be more detailed, less blocky/chunky to my eyes.

https://vimeo.com/74402510

https://vimeo.com/74398289

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Yes, the PAL tape looks much better

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 (Edited)

russs15 said:

 

I have found a few more "quirks" with various videos in my PAL VHS collection. Here are the old and new ones along with a few screenshots to show what I have found.

 

1 Wrong audio

The 1987, 1988 and 1989 Fullscreen versions of ANH do not have the Threepio tractor beam line so therefore do not have the recognised 1985 Ben Burtt remix sound track.

2 No Fox Fanfare

This has been known for a while but the 1995 THX "Last time only" versions of ESB and ROTJ (both Full and Widescreen) do not have the Fox Fanfare.

They go from this...

to this...

to this...

missing out this on ESB...

and this on ROTJ.

However, I have just realised that the 1987 re-release of ANH does something similar.

It goes from this...

to this...

missing out this.

 

Finally

3 Interupted Fox fanfare

On the initial 1982 Fullscreen ANH, as the Fox Fanfare is playing, an announcer talks over the Fanfare as follows  "20th Century Fox Video presents."

EDIT

4 Another odd thing I have found is that the 1995 ANH Fullscreen release Fox Logo has changed from the slanting 0 to the upright 0 like this...

The weird thing is that ALL the Widescreen PAL ANH releases also have the original slanting 0, even the 1995 THX Last time only and 1995 Executor box set. It just goes to show the inconsistency in the release of Star Wars films on video in the UK.

 

 

Most if not all US editions of ANH on VHS in FS prior to 1995 have the the none slanted 0 Fox logo. The 1995 US release in FS features the slanted 0. One reason I find this interesting is 'cause the 1992 FS copy of ANH features the none slanted 0 while the 1992 WS VHS edition features the slanted 0. 

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My dirty little secret is that I prefer to watch all three films in P&S.

Shhh! Don't tell anyone! :-X

A picture is worth a thousand words. Post 102 is worth more.

I’m late to the party, but I think this is the best song. Enjoy!

—Teams Jetrell Fo 1, Jetrell Fo 2, and Jetrell Fo 3

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IMHO, you have not lived until you have sat through all three films from the 2004/2006 Pan n Scan DVD release. I still live in hope of a Blu Ray version!!!!

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Discuss…

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russs15 said:

I still live in hope of a Blu Ray version!!!!

 I hope someone makes this. It would be really interesting to see. Does anyone know if there is a comparison of the various pan and scan version out there?

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russs15 said:

IMHO, you have not lived until you have sat through all three films from the 2004/2006 Pan n Scan DVD release. I still live in hope of a Blu Ray version!!!!

Blu-ray version of what exactly, the P&S versions the 2004 SE? and do you mean a full 1080p or 720p?

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dark_jedi said:

russs15 said:

IMHO, you have not lived until you have sat through all three films from the 2004/2006 Pan n Scan DVD release. I still live in hope of a Blu Ray version!!!!

Blu-ray version of what exactly, the P&S versions the 2004 SE? and do you mean a full 1080p or 720p?

 I might be alone on this, but I think a P&S version of the 2011 Blu Ray would be cool.

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Wazzles said:

dark_jedi said:

russs15 said:

IMHO, you have not lived until you have sat through all three films from the 2004/2006 Pan n Scan DVD release. I still live in hope of a Blu Ray version!!!!

Blu-ray version of what exactly, the P&S versions the 2004 SE? and do you mean a full 1080p or 720p?

 I might be alone on this, but I think a P&S version of the 2011 Blu Ray would be cool.

But he does not mention the 2011 release in his post.

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A Blu Ray version of the 2011 versions of the OT in Pan and Scan is what I was meaning in my post.

Please forgive my terrible use of the English language, especially with me being English!!!

Joking aside, I did read recently that there were still more people worldwide using 4:3 CRT televisions but I also suspect that those people probably would not have Blu Ray players!! Unless of course they had PS3's which I also read somewhere was the worlds most popular Blu Ray player.

With hindsight, until Fox/Disney/Lucasfilm realise that there is big money to be made with a proper restoration release of the OT, there will only be one release that will ever be seen in my house and I am sure that DJ can guess which version that is!!

Plus the fact that I lost my entire archive collection was lost about three months ago when my 2tb HDD was knocked over as it was spinning means that I have just started again with a very recent release.

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My initial reaction was to say "wasn't the last Star Wars DVD release the 2013 BD+DVD combo trilogy box sets" (with the BD cut on DVD for the first time)...

But I hadn't really thought about the idea (or care too much honestly) that we hadn't seen a "full screen" release since 2004. Not that I care much but I do recall a guy bought both versions back in the day because of the "greater detail" in the part we do see.

I can understand a bit of nostalgia for some people (even myself at times), but for me I embrace the "original aspect ratio" mantra. Once I learned what "letterbox" was in the mid 90's or so, I never looked back.

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Ok, so I've been busily searching Usenet and the Spleen for copies or preservations of the original full screen pan and scan of the trilogy. I have already added Starkiller's 1982 Video Rental to my collection. What I am wondering is if there are similar transfers of Empire and ROTJ available. I guess what I am after is something akin to what I experienced growing up watching them for the first time. Anyone care to point me in the right direction for Empire and ROTJ? Many thanks!